Walking down Mulberry Street in New York’s Little Italy can often feel like a contact sport. Locals elbow past tourists, pedestrians duck and dodge al fresco dining tables, gift shops all but assault you with racks of kitschy souvenirs. Heaven help you during the annual San Gennaro Festival.

When you reach the intersection of Mulberry and Grand Streets, however, you encounter the Grand Mulberry, a seven-story residential building designed by Morris Adjmi Architects with its distinctive facade of custom-formed dome bricks. On the Mulberry side of the building, is a triangle of refuge from the neighborhood hubbub that serves as the threshold of the new Italian American Museum.